


the life of a lone wolf

by AllTheyveKnown



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucharest, Civil War, Gen, No Romance, Other, Werewolves, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 18:42:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11236932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTheyveKnown/pseuds/AllTheyveKnown
Summary: A short glimpse into the Winter Soldier and James Barnes' lives. Set mainly during Civil War.





	the life of a lone wolf

The Winter Soldier sits. 

He waits. 

He observes and analyzes each object in his Bucharest apartment. 

The more he watches, the more he knows about the application of each object in his apartment as a weapon, as protection, as familiar and new. 

It is how he knows the words of each newspaper article he covered the windows with. How he knows each mote of dust when the ceiling shakes from the upstairs neighbor's footsteps. How he knows exactly which boards creak on the floor, and which surfaces rustle the loudest. How he knows what objects can be used most objectively. 

For instance, that rug that he uses to pull the feet out from under the assailant after the Target enters his apartment. The Target that smashes open his refrigerator door into one of those intruders does not know it's contents: James does. 

James knows how he is a weapon, how he keeps himself in tune. He exercises, eats his plums, drinks water. But it was not always that way. 

It was only when the weapon began breaking down that the Soldier became weak enough for James to work with him instead of against him. They remember the height of the apathy, the turning point of the conditioning. 

They remember Siberia, the wolf-pack of the other Winter Soldiers. He was the lone, the one with the bonus and the disability of a metal arm, the brutal alpha. But the other five wolves, the other five Soldiers, they were the pack, the guerrillas, stronger by stronger serum. And when the Soldat was weakened by his handlers, his commanders, his alphas, by being told to combat test the other Soldiers, it was only obvious that blood was in the air. 

The sharks circled. 

They were patient for their turns. 

The handlers watched, money changing hands, bets being taken, leashes being yanked. 

The wolves waited. 

Finally the first combatant was called. 

The fight began. The fight ended. 

And the Winter Soldier was no longer the best in the room. 

The scientists tried to take readings. 

The Winter Soldier was called to protect. 

Protection details were usually short and ended in death. 

This one did not-- not for the protected. 

The Soldier went to sleep, eventually. After the pack's deaths. Sleep-death, time-death, to be buried in time and forgotten. 

When he next woke, the world was different. 

The Soldier was shaken by the events in Washington D.C., American Capitol. 

The Soldier fled, for the first time. Not a retreat, not calculated, nothing except pure fight vs. flight and for once in his freethinking life, the Soldier fled. 

James found him soon after. James had been lurking in the shadows, subtly pulling the strings and fraying them, weakening the Soldier. 

For years. 

So James and the Soldier waged a war.

Between themselves. On the world. On HYDRA. On the past, the present, and the future. 

Then came this apartment. The Soldat wasting away in a one-room shithole, by far not the worst he's ever been kept in. He wouldn't eat or drink or sleep. He existed solely. But James refused to let him. James wanted retribution, James wanted safety, James /wanted/. 

So James sought out what he could to tempt the untemptable. James found plums, the object the Soldier couldn't waste. He made sure the Soldier drank water, and closed his eyes at least. James became the Soldier's new handler, and helped him catalogue everything in the apartment for its weapon usage. 

They became partners. 

A two-wolf pack. 

Waiting. 

Then, the Target arrives. 

Then, later, James is shoved aside as the Soldier, unwilling, returns to command state. 

Then, sooner than usual, James is given back one rein of the two. 

They become partners again. 

They work with the Target. 

And soon, they agreed between the two of them, that sleep would be the best option. The cold, deep, sometimes grave-silent, sometimes nightmarish, sleep. 

They slept. 

In their sleep, they were two wolves. A pair-of-Alphas, searching for a pack. 

They wait. 

And when they next woke, they had one.

**Author's Note:**

> I am thinking about continuing this work... Any interest?


End file.
